The stars of Vanderpump Rules might want to thank Tom Sandoval and Rachel Leviss. Thanks to their infamous sexcapade, the entire cast got a pay bump ahead of Season 11. Their price went up!
Although Bravo doesn’t disclose the specific salaries of their cast members, VPR’s executive producer Alex Baskin spoke to Us Weekly about the negotiations that went down ahead of Season 11. The VPR crew delivered record-breaking numbers for the network, and they want to be well-paid for it.
Raises all around
According to Alex, the salary negotiations ahead of Season 11 were tougher than ever. Not only did the cast become overnight pop-culture sensations, they also scored their first-ever Emmy nomination. People were so invested in Scandoval that Bravo and Peacock earned blockbuster ratings. VPR’s sudden success in Season 10 wasn’t something anyone could have expected, so of course, the cast members were expecting more money for Season 11.
Alex shared, “This is as hard as it’s ever been because typically, we have a rate card, a tenure card, we’ve used in prior seasons. There are all sorts of asks across the board.”
When talking about the negotiations, Alex explained that some asks were totally out of the question. For example, no one could negotiate their way into earning a producer credit. Even Ariana couldn’t manage to get that much out of the scandal. Alex also said they had to consider the “state of the industry” when making salary decisions. Still, the cast came to Season 11 with fatter paychecks.
“Their point is, rightfully, ‘You guys are touting the show’s success. Where is our piece of that?’ Those are tough conversations,” Alex explained.
He continued, “I did think that everybody, with the exception of Rachel, who had to make a personal decision, wanted to come back. Everybody did better than what they had previously gotten.”
Obviously, we know that Rachel had her own salary negotiation drama. She previously shared that she came to the bargaining table asking for equal pay with Sandoval and Ariana Madix. She also wanted to be reimbursed for her mental health treatment.
On the other hand, Alex described their offer to Rachel as a “healthy” one. He said they had a ton of back-and-forth with her reps, who were hoping to ink a development deal for Rachel. None of that panned out, and Alex thinks they made the right call to move on from her in Season 11.
He explained, “I will say on the other side of things, if she still wanted to move on from Tom and didn’t want anything to do with him, then perhaps her absence allowed that to happen.”
Season 11 of Vanderpump Rules premieres on Tuesday, January 30th at 8/7c on Bravo.
TELL US – DO YOU THINK THE VANDERPUMP RULES CAST DESERVED PAY RAISES FOR SCANDOVAL? OR IS THIS ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF BRAVO REWARDING BAD BEHAVIOR?
